NAVIGATION ACT OF 1817

NAVIGATION ACT OF 1817. The Navigation Act of 1817 was one of many American steps toward national self-sufficiency that followed the WAR OF 1812. An effort to regain the lucrative West Indian trade, which the British had closed after the war, this act stated that all cargo between American ports must only be carried in ships entirely owned by American citizens or belonging to West Indian merchants. Tonnage duties on vessels licensed for coastwise trade were set at six cents a ton on vessels manned by Americans and fifty cents for others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dangerfield, George. The Awakening of American Nationalism, 1815–1828. New York: Harper and Row, 1965.

White, Patrick Cecil Telfer, ed. The Critical Years: American Foreign Policy, 1793–1823. New York: Wiley, 1970.

John Haskell Kemble/H. S.

See also Coasting Trade; Triangular Trade.